After a SUPER long travel day, we arrived in Istanbul! It was a holiday weekend (Eid)... so the city was quiet and the Grand Bazaar was closed. There were still plenty of sights to see!! We stayed in the city for a couple of nights before flying to our next destination. It was a perfect way to start the trip... and to get adjusted to the ten hour time difference! (For the record, Danni and I adjusted WAY before Mommy and Daddy did!!) :) Istanbul was a fun city to visit -- we were excited that we'd get to come back to it at the tail end of our trip!!
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| The shop keepers LOVED Danni and gave her gifts! She was especially proud of this pink jeweled spoon! Mommy and Daddy LOVED the Turkish desserts ... lots of yummy choices of baklava! (I did not care for it!) |
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| Sister cuddles! |
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| This guy was selling spun sugar ... he twisted it around a stick to make a soft lollipop. Since these were fruity flavors, I was not a fan... but it sure was pretty to look at and cool to watch! The sugar was sticky and stringy - like taffy! |
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| She liked this sugary treat! |
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| GRRRR! Riding a lion in the Topkapi Palace Gardens... can you see my sidekick? |
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| The gardens were gorgeous... |
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| Danni took a lion ride too! |
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| Not quite big enough to fit into the Sultan's robes! |
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| Butterfly boy! |
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| I found a golden lion too! |
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| Another silly Sultan robe! |
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| Danni REALLY wanted to climb up to see if there were fairies in the house at the top. This was a fairy tree! |
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| Beautiful topiary mazes on the hillside... |
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| Danni liked the street vendor's corn! A cob cost about 50 cents. |
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| I liked the simit bread... it tasted kind of like a bagel! Each one was 1 lira... or about 50 cents. |
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| We paid to feed (and chase!) the pigeons in the town square. |
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| There were kitties EVERYWHERE! This little guy sat with us at our lunch restaurant! |
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| We rode the metro and the trolley! |
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| This was our favorite dondurma man! The dondurma sticks to the bar and he would tease us with it before finally letting us eat it! |
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| Tastes like ice cream! |
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| Danni rested her feet in front of a mosque.... |
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| The Grand Bazaar was closed because of Eid... No shopping for us! |
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| Fascinated by the orange and pomegranate juice vendors. They squeezed it fresh right on the street. A cup of yuminees was about 2 lira (or a dollar!) and worth it!! Delicious! |
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| Ready for some yummy orange juice!! |
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| Delish!!! |
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| Turkish cuisine wasn't tooo bad... This was a Doner Kebab wrap... Nobody told me that it was made of lamb. I was fine, though because (thankfully) Turks dig their ketchup almost as much as I do! |
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